Killer Plymouth Wagon

Why am I posting a domestic car? It's because this car kicks ass. Browsing Autoblog as I normally do on my breaks at work, I came across this beast. A 1968 Plymouth Satellite wagon that had a 440 six pack thrown in by the local dealer. This was done in 1969, so it was practically a new car. As the story goes, it was just a guy who wanted to have a fast car like he had in his youth, but being the family guy he needed something more practical. For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge fan of Dodge/ Chrylser products of that era, so I just had to post this up. I wonder if i'll see this car at the Mopar show this year. I'll definitely keep a look out for this one.

Click here for the rest of the story

Go Riva Go!

I've got the scooter up and running. It even starts on the first try, or least it on the second for sure.


Bought a new battery for cause the other one didn't hold a charge when I attempted to charge it.

Tearing apart and cleaning the carb. No I didn't do it on the dirty concrete floor. I made sure I swept the floor. Even though the carburetor was small, cleaning all the passages was a tedious task. But it's not uncommon for crap to clog passages and jets. It's probably the reason for the hard start problems when cold.

We have life.

.
The brakes work o.k. at the moment, they probably need to be replaced soon. The wire harness has corrosion inside the terminals, which I could try and clean but would be a headache. Easiest would be to replace the whole harness. I probably won't be doing these things anytime soon, since I really need to get my car up and running.

I'd like to give thanks to Jeffery Street's website for having the information needed to help me figure all the issues. Cause I'm too cheap to buy a service manual.

Greddy Performance Festival and Garage Sale

Here's something new, Greddy in conjunction with Drift Association have created a motorsports meeting. Bringing together the drift, drag, and autocross into one venue. So whatever your pleasure, they're sure to have something for you. But if racing ain't your thing they are also holding a garage sale so i'm sure you'll get a deal on some parts for your car. I'll be there early to check if they have a titianium header on sale.
So if you ain't got nothing to on Saturday, February 23 then swing by and say hi. I'll probably be signed up for the drift part of the event.
For more information visit Greddy.

Finding the right tools

If you choose automotive as a career or a hobby, you gotta have tools right? Borrowing the neighbors tools will only go so far. Most rookies start off with Craftsman tools cause it does the job and the price is reasonable, it's what started with when I first started out in the industry. Sears is also in every major city so if it breaks you have a place to go to for a replacement. But when you start using high end tools you can really appreciate them, something I didn't do initial due to price. But since I don't wrench for a living any more I still like to get my hands on the high end tools. But it's hard chasing the tool truck around, looking for a couple tools that you hope he may have stashed in his truck. Or I could go on each tool makers site and order from there. But either way it gets expensive really fast. And I'm cheap, so I've started scouring places like ebay, swap meets and garage sales for tools. Sure it's used but it does the same job. Lately I've been dealing with Carl who sells tools at swap meets and ebay. A really nice guy with awesome prices on used tools. He carries names like Snap-On and Mac (which I prefer). So take a visit to his site http://www.landonlawtools.com/ or if you're a Southern California local you can also see him personally at the Long Beach Hi Performance Swap Meet at Veterans Stadium

Love that 86

With many of the shops and manufacturers showing off their goods for the newer model and high class vehicles, it's always good to see there is still some love for the 86. Check out this titanuim header by Greddy. I don't know the price of it, but i'm sure you'll need to surrender a nut just to own this piece.

Even HKS at their 35th anniversary booth had their sport exhaust for an 86 on display. Though it's a 2nd version sport exhaust, it was still cool to see. Anyone old enough to recall their first sport exhaust had the dual "machine gun" tips.

If I had room in my bag for these pieces I definitely would have snagged these up. As AE86 becomes older, the making of parts are left up to privateer shops and smaller manufacturers. It's always good to see some places like HKS and Greddy still represent.

TAS Booth Babes

What's the TAS without the sexy but oh so cute booth babes. Almost every booth had one. Here's a couple of pictures I took while I was there. Enjoy.







Click here for the rest of gallery

Park it like it's hot

I have accumulated over a 1000 photos during the trip to TAS. Rather than upload all of them i'll leave the photos of the show to the pros. Let do a walk through the parking lot of TAS to see what the locals drive. I only got pictures on Friday. Saturday was rained out, and that was actually the best day to see all the cars. Enjoy.

The trucks:

I wonder if he suffers from little man syndrome.

Here's something I didn't expect. The front license plate frame is from Cabe Toyota. I wonder if he knows Herb.

The wild ones:What is it?

Z32 trying it's hardest to look like Ferrari

4dr Sedans:

It looks just like Hiro Sumida's car before he painted it Falken colors. Also love the use of R32 and r33 wheels.

The wagons:

Sporting the American Racing Wheels with white walls, my hat off to you sir!

The imports:

Gas mizer vs. gas guzzler

The heart beat of America!

The K cars:

Notice it's size in comparison with the Mazda Atenza (Mazda 6)

The rest of the galler is here.

Blue Thunder

I just picked up a Yamaha Riva CA50 scooter (Traded a pocket bike I won at the 4AG challenge). It's a dinky 50 cc scooter I'll be using as pit transportation. That's right I'm moving up, all I need now is a F350 Powerstroke dually and24ft enclosed and I'm set. It needs some work to get it up to running condition. But I'm having a difficult time finding good information online. Honda Sprees have more info than this scooter. So if anyone has any web links they can send me I'll definitely appreciate it.

2008 Tokyo Auto Salon

I just got back from Japan. I coughed up a credit card to pay for my spot for the Turbo Magazine annual TAS (Tokyo Auto Salon) tour. It's basically a 6day/ 4night trip to Japan to take a VIP tour of TAS, local race tracks, and misc tourist stuff. I didn't know what to expect on this trip, but I thought it was just going to be typical tourist trip. Don't get me wrong, but a tour is usually a go here and there, see this and that. But this trip overall has exceeded all my expectations.
Everything the TAS tour provided itself was great since I was able to see things up close and personal, that only the media was able to provide. The parts and other goodies being sold was really cheap too. Of course, I grabbed stuff for myself. It was really different from the SEMA in feel and presentation. It was much smaller than SEMA so I was able to see everything from the show. But I was still tired from all that walking and snapping a bunch of photos. I was even able to see an AE86 Corolla at the parking lot in Japan, I couldn't ask for anything more. Yeah it's retarded, but that's what you get when you own a Corolla I guess.
The next day was a trip back to Auto Salon for half day. On the way there we saw alot of sick cars heading out to Auto Salon. I thought, wouldn't it be nice just to see an AE86 Corolla in Japan driving around. I tell you the guy up stairs was listening cause a few minutes later I saw a panda trueno hatchback drive past our tour bus. WTH, this just couldn't get any better. Unless the driver's name happened to be Takumi. Yeah, it's retarded, remember I'm a Corolla owner.
The other half of the trip consisted of a visit to a local buddhist temple, to remind us that Japan has more to offer than cars and JDM parts. There was a vendors row, which reminded me of our local swap meets. A toy shop which carried some old toys of my childhood, food vendors selling japanese traditional food and snacks, and the obvious souvenir shops. Maybe next time I take a trip to Japan I'll do the tourist thing. Cause Japan has so much to offer and not enough time to see them.
Their drift experience tour, sponsored by Nitto tires. Brought out a couple of local drifters, probably Nitto sponsored, to provide rides to the tourists. They also had a driving experience, which provided regular cars equipped with different types of tires that were offered by Nitto. Unfortunately one car had some sort of accident so it was cancelled. A visit to a karting track was o.k. but that's something I could do back home. During lunch we visited the Fuji Speedway restaurant/ souvenir shop. The first thing I saw when we rolled in were a couple of old school Datsun Bluebirds. I made a note to myself snap a couple of photos before we left. Waiting for lunch I realize there won't be enough time to eat and look at the cars. So a grabbed a can of creamed corn from a vending machine and headed to take a couple of snap shots. Thank goodness for those vending machines. Anyways after taking a couple snaps in the paddock area, I climbed 3 stories of the garage building to take pictures of the track. Thats's where I realized they were having an open track session, I just about pooped in my pants. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, all these hot cars old and new were flying down that track. From old school Datsuns Fairlady Z and Blubirds, Toyota Sprinters, and Mazda 1st gen RX7. To Ferrari Testarossa, Nissan Stagea (a Skyline GTR wagon for those who don't know) and the infamous Skyline GTRs. Where in the world can I ever see this except for here at world renown Fuji Speedway. What's really funny was that exploring Fuji wasn't really part of the itinerary, but was actually the best part of the whole trip for me.
The trip was worth everything and recommend it to any Japanese car aficionado, whether it be ricers, racers, or enthusiasts. This trip has something for everyone. So save up your money or call your credit card company to raise your limit for next year cause you won't be disappointed.
I've got tons of photos I'll try and get something up soon.

4AG Challenge

Yeah, yeah, it's already old. But I decided to post a couple pics of the event.


Event: 4AG Challenge
Date: December 9, 2007
Location: Willow Springs International Raceway aka. Big Willow
Mission: Search and Destroy all competition

It's been a long time coming, but it is finally time again for 4AG powered vehicles to do battle with the clock to see who's fastest, or at least who has the fastest car. The last time attack I participated in was when Eric @ Rhys Millen Racing organized the event. This time PASS racing was gracious enough or maybe crazy to hold this event for us Corolla/4AG enthusiast at Willow Springs race track.
I had my doubts when I signed up for this event. The track itself, I feel is catered more towards big horsepower vehicles. If you know 4AG power, it ain't much, and it cost alot of money to put a little more power. But when people start calling you a pansy, that's when the gloves come off. But I was just being ignorant since I only ran it when testing the LeMons car during a Redline track event. Yes, I was bored and annoyed at all the faster cars lapping me. But the MR2 was very much stock, just a gutted interior and roll bar. It was alot of fun to drive, can't get enough of that body roll.
Since my car is highly modified, I decided to see what it can do on the track. I didn't make any changes to my setup, since I'm already happy with how it's handling. I'm trying out a new set of V710 R compound tires from Kumho. They are one step to full on race slicks and I was really excited to use them. The whole day I was running really well with no major problems, good times. I was passing people left and right in my group. 2 cars, R33 Skyline GTR and an Audi don't know what model, who were faster in the straights, but too slow around the turns let me pass. I left them as I carved through the corners, oohh yeah.
Ivan in his Evolution gave me a run and slowly pulled away from me. I couldn't catch up, boo. But his car ain't stock, so that makes me feel better, LOL. He was in our group cause he was able to finish his AW11 MR2 in time for the event. I think they should have gave him size 13 boot.
The 3rd and last session before the time trial, I thought to myself I was going to take it easy. But my sorry was greedy and wanted to show people the power of turbo. While chasing a Porsche Turbo and Ford Mustang, I was setting up for a pass from those 2 guys. Unfortunately, I the Porsche driver was a puss and slowed down while I was on full throttle. So I had to slow down and down shift in order to maintain the engine in the optimum power band. That's when the ring and pinion broke, while flying down the back of big willow. I pulled over into the dirt so that I won't drop oil on to the track cause at first I had no clue of what happened. I slowly nursed the car back to pits. Pissed that I won't be able to participate in the time trial. I was running 1:40s all day, so I'm guessing that my times would be around 1:37 if I was able to run the time trial.
At the awards ceremony, they held a raffle and I won a little pocket bike. I guess it's a nice consolation prize for breaking. Too bad they didn't raffle off a ring and pinion.
The event was alot of fun, kudos to PASS racing for organizing such an awesome event. I'd definitely do another event.

Since I didn't participate at the timed runs I was able to take a couple of photos of the event. Click here.

2008 GRM UTCC

I decided to enter my AE86 in hopes of running with all the big boys. I don't know how it will do but I won't know unless I do.
"Do or do not, there is no try" - Yoda (Star Wars Empire Strikes Back) Words to live by.
If you're up for a challenge I suggest you sign up here.
If you want to see a corolla in this event then swing by and vote for me. GRM UTCC